1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus performing image processing for an image obtained by picking up an image of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various image processing is performed according to purposes of use for an image acquired by an image pickup apparatus for picking up an image of a subject.
In a medical field, endoscopes which are inserted into a body cavity to perform endoscopy are widely used.
An insertion section of an endoscope is inserted into a body cavity, and an image of an affected part or the like in the body cavity is picked up by an image pickup device provided at a distal end portion of the insertion section, image-processed by an image processing apparatus and displayed on a display device as an endoscopic image.
In recent years, an image processing apparatus has been proposed which calculates diagnostic support information for supporting a diagnosis by image processing, for an image or an endoscopic image acquired by the image pickup device of an endoscope, so that the surgeon can make a diagnosis more smoothly.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4451460 discloses an image processing apparatus which divides an endoscopic image obtained by picking up a living mucosa into regions according to similar tissue structures, performs, for each divided region, a discrimination/classification process on the basis of a predetermined feature value, and displays a classification result of the discrimination/classification in association with each region as diagnostic support information.